


One Dad, Two Dad (Mom Dad, New Dad)

by orphan_account



Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst with a Happy Ending, Depression, Infidelity, Multi, Polyamory Negotiations
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 01:53:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11681538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Let me tell you what I’m here for and that is happy slightly (dys)functional polyamory between three dads and a mom.But there's a slow burn until we get there.---Robert Small is self-destructing, Joseph and Mary Christiansen are unhappy, Dadsona (Dee) is new in town. Everyone makes bad decisions. Until they learn to make good (better) decisions together.---10.23.17 - Likely abandoned.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based off my own tumblr [not!fic](http://brinkleytown.tumblr.com/post/163679233654/let-me-tell-you-what-im-here-for-and-that-is) which basically tells you everywhere I'm going with this.
> 
> Concrit welcomed! No beta but let me know if you're interested in helping.

Robert Small is not a good man.

The anniversary of his last conversation with Val is coming up soon. According to DadBook, she just moved in with her girlfriend--a civil rights lawyer in the city. He should maybe make amends before wedding bells ring.

He stopped visiting Marilyn two months after she was put in the ground. Robert doesn’t count times Betsy has led him on a romp through the graveyard, mostly because he tries not to notice her headstone.

The nights he doesn’t spend arguing on conspiracy message boards about the relative merits of bigfoot and yeti sightings-- _you’re full of shit, slut4ch00pacabra_ \--he finds himself in the woods and mountains surrounding Maple Bay. In his old Ford F150, sea green that’s more like an olive from the caked on grime, he prowls the outskirts of his home and his old life. Ostensibly he’s looking for something beyond the pale. Maybe he has become the ultimate cliche, trying to find himself.

The bottoms of empty bottles of expensive whiskey don’t provide answers or quiet the obsessions. The mothman is bullshit. He washes that down with cheap, below rail rot gut masquerading itself as a dark liquor.

His last connection to a semblance of human contact other than occasional emails to the editor at Cryptidography Magazine with freelance pitches and story rewrites is Jim and Kim’s. It’s a dive bar with dive clientele and a name that Neil actually came up with during a dumpster dive. Robert genuinely loves the place.

He can watch The Game and cheer for The Team to beat The Other Team in amicable strangerhood with the other patrons, take a few shots, and sometimes find a warm bed to fall into or an overnight guest to kick out before dawn. The routine continues for a few months and he manages to groom his depression beard into a ruggedly handsome perma-shadow and dig out an old leather jacket that makes him look just shy of unapproachable.

At first he sees her once--maybe twice--a month with a gaggle of other neighborhood moms in tow. She smiles at him and when the light glints off the crucifix hanging around her neck, Robert looks away, not returning the gesture. What has God done for him lately?

Once a month turns into once a week, and the other women slowly drop out of the group. It’s the first time she’s been there two nights in a row that she tries to start up a conversation with him.

“Hey sailor,” she opens, perching herself on the barstool next to him. “Buy a girl a drink?”

She’s clearly inebriated already and she’s clutching a quarter glass of merlot in her left hand as she asks. Robert isn’t one to judge or discourage reckless behavior. He orders shots. Whiskey.

“I’m Mary,” the woman offers after expertly downing the drink in one. “Mary Christiansen. We’re neighbors. Rob, right?”

“Robert,” he corrects, gruffly. This might be their first proper meeting, but Robert knows who Mary is by now. Wife of goody-two-shoes, youth pastor, uneasy smiling Joseph Christiansen and mother of a gaggle of horror movie blonde children. He went to a barbeque the family hosted for Labor Day, ate a burger without bothering to locate the buns and extricated himself from the affair as quickly as possible after making polite greetings--okay, gruntings.

“You come here often?” Mary quips. There is a joking glint in her eye and Robert likes that she puts their shared degeneracy out in the open. It’s easy that way to fall into companionable silence as they watch the Nearby Big City Sports Team secure their participation in the Big Game.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note that the rating has changed, just to be safe. I have also "Chosen Not To Warn" for some content that crept up in this chapter which I cannot decide whether or not it warrants a warning. There are a few content warnings on the chapter that I won't add to the main tags yet, so please refer to the end notes if you'd like to know more before reading.
> 
> Basically I started writing this and it became something I hadn't planned for.
> 
> As always, comments loved, concrit welcomed, this is an unbeta-ed mess and follow me on [tumblr](http://brinkleytown.tumblr.com).

Mary Christiansen is a good woman.

Things had changed after the second miscarriage. She got sober, right with god, and strove to be the mother and wife her family deserved. She prays daily, attends two separate bible studies each week, and has a shiny one-year chip from her 12-Step program. She has three beautiful children, a god-fearing man as her loving husband, the presidency of the PTA, and a child growing in her womb.

Reward comes with the birth of a healthy baby boy. Joseph names him “Chrish,” continuing the family theme. Mary almost regrets not letting him name their oldest “Jesus” just for a bit of diversity, but her delight and motherly love outweighs the embarrassment of a supremely uncreative naming scheme.

Mary starts drinking socially with the other neighborhood mothers after Chrish switches to formula. She finds it easy to keep to an occasional glass of wine or margarita now.

Joseph congratulates her success with a bottle of champagne on their ninth anniversary. They split it between the two of them on the boat that evening. Away from their daily responsibilities and with the kids under the safe watch of the Vega family next door, Mary and Joseph come together biblically. Joseph secures one of her wrists to the bedframe with his tie and Mary manages to come under her partner’s ministrations for the first time in years.

It is barely a week later that God takes a wrecking ball to Mary Christiansen’s carefully constructed and reconstructed life. Chrish is only fourteen months old when they find him, motionless and unbreathing in his crib.

 _SIDS_ . The doctors explain. _You couldn’t have known._ They say. _We can’t say what caused it. Possibly a defect in his heart at birth. Is there someone you’d like to call to say a few words?_

Joseph performs the pastoral services himself. The funeral is small.

They speak of Crish as if he is still with them. The neighbors seem confused at first, but acclimate quickly.

To the speech affectation, that is.

Her friends keep a polite distance and at first it seems normal. They have their own lives and families and cannot allow themselves to be dragged down by the grieving mother. But as her wardrobe switches from blacks to tans and browns, no one seems eager to bring her back into the fold.

Susan ousts her on the PTA. She expects it. How can she be expected to speak for the children of others if she can’t be trusted with her own?

She goes out on her own now. Joseph can handle the children. And if he can’t, Hugo Vega needs a distraction from his divorce anyway.

When she is honest with herself, Mary knows it’s not the kids that Joseph doesn’t want to be around. It’s just as well when she finds herself at a bar more nights than not. The kids have teachers and church ladies for positive female role models--they don’t need a mother who is practically a murderess at this point.

She knows when Joseph starts straying again. He spends Saturdays on fishing trips where the yacht doesn’t leave the dock. Mary can’t bring herself to care.

At Jim and Kim’s one evening, she spots Robert Small. He is a widower with an empty nest and some sort of small yippy dog. He smells like smoke and booze when she slides onto the barstool next to him. “Hey Sailor. Buy a girl a drink?”

Robert notices her wine glass. He obliges anyway and Mary thinks God might finally be taking some pity on her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warnings: Miscarriage, Infant Death, and a brief mention of sexual bondage
> 
> ** I started writing and then realized that we've never seen Crish and the tragic backstory flowed from there.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> same major tw from the last chapter
> 
> *Also i'm basically just writing and posting quickly trying to get back into the swing of writing. Concrit is always welcome. Please help me write better.

Joseph Christiansen flirts with the Devil.

He has a tattoo that peeks out from the sleeves of his polo shirts, a less than honorable discharge from the US Navy, and a lover who is not his wife. He counsels others facing marital trouble but sees his own union slipping away.

God forgives sinners who repent and Joseph seeks that forgiveness in earnest. Even a man strong in his faith can succumb to temptation if he doesn’t stay vigilant. He confesses and works to do better in the future.

It only takes but a weekend of thought and prayer for Mary to forgive him. She asks only perfunctory questions--”Have I been exposed to any disease?” and “Is it over?”--and when he suggests moving to Maple Bay to take a job in the youth ministry she smiles and begins to research the school district.

Joseph is thankful that Mary demands to never hear anything about the “other woman.” While gender is irrelevant to the sin of infidelity, it is easier to leave certain things unsaid. Joseph knows his attraction to his wife is genuine and would be loathe to foster even more doubt in her mind.

\-----

Joseph Christiansen becomes a man of God.

He has the white picket fence, doting wife, and three beautiful children. Only in his early thirties, he is already an accomplished youth minister with a book on teen relationships at Christian booksellers nationwide and occasional paid speaking engagements. He is blonde, handsome, and clean-cut with a proudly worn wedding band and baby photos in his wallet.

\-----

But loss hits the Christiansens hard.

“God is testing us,” Joseph says to Mary. “We need to have faith.”

They keep up appearances until his Mary is caught by the associate pastor sneaking communion wine. It is hard to let someone else witness their struggles but in return for their vulnerability, they find support.

\-----

Crish’s death is beyond the realm of Jesus, prodding his flock to show greater trust. This is angry, vengeful Old Testament punishment. Even Joseph can hardly blame his wife for leaving the church.

Some nights Mary doesn’t come home. Sometimes Joseph doesn’t either. He leaves the kids with Hugo and spends his time alone in a floating Margaritaville. With some luck, Christian and Christie won’t learn any wrestling moves while he is gone. With a lot of prayer, maybe Mary will start to heal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're caught up on the backstories for now. D(adsona) will arrive in a bit and we'll hear from him but for now things can get plotty.


End file.
